More on the three Miah brothers convicted this week

The Daily Mail has reported some of the evidence which lead to the conviction this week of the three brothers Miah at Crown Court Preston. 

Three brothers who abused girls as young as six in a 14-year campaign of rape and sexual assault face decades in prison.

Shaha Amran Miah, 48, Shaha Alman Miah, 47, and Shaha Joman Miah, 38, were convicted after a lengthy trial at Preston Crown Court.

The abuse happened in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and Leeds, West Yorkshire, between 1996 and 2010.

During the trial, the court heard that Alman Miah started a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. During their relationship, the girl was raped by his brother, Amran Miah, and was threatened by him after she spoke to the police.

Joman had also groomed and sexually assaulted a girl while he was working at Iesha’s, a takeaway owned by his family, and allegedly said after one altercation that ‘in his religion a girl could marry an adult male from the age of nine.’ That also came out during the first trial aborted in 2023, but it bears repeating. 

The trial also heard one of the girls claimed Joman sexually assaulted her at least weekly at a mosque in Leeds, where he taught the Qur’an and she was his pupil.  The girls abused by Amran Miah and Joman Miah were as young as six or seven when the abuse began, the court heard.

Joman Miah started a relationship with a girl of 14 and groomed her by giving her gifts, alcohol and cigarettes.

Around the same time, Alman Miah started a relationship with a 15-year-old girl, who was raped by Amran Miah.

In late 2009, after speaking to police about the attack, the 15-year-old victim was grabbed off the street by her hair by a man and shoved in the back of a car, where Amran Miah was in the passenger seat, prosecutors said.

The man who grabbed her asked her what she had said to the police and told her ‘she would be dead’ if she had told them anything.

He also made threats to a woman who was due to be interviewed by the police in 2010 in relation to the brothers. Due to the threats, that interview never took place.

Their trial heard Joman, who was known by the nickname ‘Saj’, groomed and sexually assaulted a girl while he was working at Iesha’s, a takeaway owned by his family.

Jurors were told how Joman had a sexual relationship with a girl when she was aged 13 to 16 whilst he was in his early to mid-20s.

The court was told the girl was picked up from school each day by Joman, who would take her to Iesha’s, where they would have sex, either on the sofa or in a bed.

Mr Evans said: ‘A key part of the ‘relationship’ was that Saj / Joman was treating (her) to pretty much whatever she wanted: Buying her presents, topping up her phone as well as buying her friends food.

‘He would also buy her cigarettes, beer and give her £40 in cash a month which she would tell her mum that it was her wages for working at the takeaway.’

Mr Evans said on one occasion Joman allegedly said after an altercation at the takeaway that ‘in his religion a girl could marry an adult male from the age of nine.’

The court heard Joman allegedly took the girl to have sex in a hotel in Barrow called The Gables on eight separate occasions. Mr Evans said Joman would cover his tracks and sneak her in after 10.30pm as there would be no one on reception.

Joman’s older brother, Alman, known as ‘Ali’ also had sex with the same girl when she was 15, the court heard.

Another victim said Amran, known by the nickname ‘Jai’, raped her. Mr Evans said the victim ‘froze’ when he pulled her shorts down and described how ‘she was in shock – not believing what was happening to her’. The court heard the victim spoke with Cumbria Police in 2009 about the incident.

Mr Evans told the court once Amran found out, he allegedly threatened to hurt her family if she spoke out again. When she was bundled into the car, she was told by Amran: ‘You better watch your mouth. You don’t know who you are dealing with and there will be consequences. You have been warned, once you screw one (of us) over, you screw us all over.’

The court heard one of the girls claimed Joman sexually assaulted her at least weekly at a mosque in Leeds, where he taught the Qur’an and she was his pupil. She was aged seven to nine at the time, and Joman was 17 to 19, the court heard.

They will be sentenced on February 21, 2025.